“Thanks.” Cassidy inspected herself in a mirror screen on her Ogham. “Maybe I’ll cut it really short or shave it sometime.”
“I told them I was going to the bathroom. How am I going to explain taking this?” Danny held up the sword and laughed.
“Tell them you were afraid of bears when you went to the bathroom,” Cassidy suggested.
“Sounds good,” Danny sighed. “See you at dinner.”
“You too.”
Cassidy casually arrived at her kayaking class right on time. Ashley, the red-head she’d met earlier, who turned out to be the instructor, gave her hair a second glance, but didn’t question the change. She heard from Danny later that no one bought the bathroom story, but found it too funny to try to uncover the truth about her borrowing the broadsword. There was one fact Cassidy did know: she and Danny would be friends for a very long time.
THE TOLYMIE’S
WINTER HOLIDAY
SET FIVE MONTHS BEFORE
CASSIDY MEETS THE TOLYMIES
TABAN FINISHED TACKING the last cedar bough to the wall of the Tolymie’s hallway while Aydan desperately tried to untangle holiday lights. Provided Aydan’s success, the pearl bulbs would certainly add a soft ivory ambiance to the hall, once intertwined with the cedar boughs.
“Hey Houdini, can’t you magic out those knots?” Taban called.
“Magic takes great patience and skill. Though I wouldn’t expect you to have either of those qualities, so you wouldn’t know,” Aydan retorted. He inspected the mess of lights and wires until he found a worthy opponent to unravel. “As I recall, you were the one who put these away last year,” he muttered under his breath.
Ignoring Aydan’s accusation, Taban jumped off the stool he’d used to tack up the boughs. As he did, one of the nails caught on his swim team sweatshirt causing him to kick the stool and fall on top of it. The most recently placed bough followed shortly, hitting him in the lower back. Taban could already feel the heat of a bruise when Aydan burst into a fit of laughter.
“Donovan, Eadowen—come look at this,” Aydan called with tears in his eyes. “This is one of his funniest falls yet.”
Carrying a couch-cushion-sized menorah, Donovan poked his head out of the living room. Though he almost managed to hide his smirk, the twinkle in Donovan’s grey eyes was completely conspicuous, especially in the flickering light emitted from the burning lighter he held in his hand.
“Are you okay, Taban?” Eadowen asked once he’d navigated his wheelchair out of the kitchen.
“I finished decking the hall,” Taban groaned. He pushed the bough off of himself and untangled his legs from the stool. “Now I’m going to deck Aydan.”
“Play nice, gentlemen.” Eadowen offered Taban his hand. “Donovan, do you want to invite Stag for dinner or a sleepover?”
“Probably busy,” Donovan grumbled, as he placed the foxglove vase from the hall table on the carpet. In its place, he set the golden menorah and lit the Shamash, the central candle, with the lighter. He produced a candle from his pocket which he tilted into the Shamash to light it and placed it in the farthest holder to indicate the first night of Hanukkah.
I wish I could fit a candle that size in my pocket, Taban thought. Oh, that sounded so wrong, even in my head.
While, Aydan recited the blessing for his brother, Taban picked cedar bough debris off his clothes.
“Stag said his calendar was open when I picked you up yesterday,” Eadowen commented to Donovan when Aydan finished.
With interested eyes, Donovan regarded Aydan, who sighed. “Prestidigitator,” Aydan addressed his Ogham by name. “Message to Stag: You wanna stay over tonight and help us decorate the tree?”
“Message from Stag: When?”
“Now is great.”
“Message from Stag: See you in a few, beautiful.”
“I look forward to it, handsome,” Aydan teased giving one end of his tangled light project a gentle tug. The string of lights unraveled evenly, as Aydan wound the strand around his arm with a satisfied kitty smile.
“Will you help me carry something?” Eadowen beckoned Donovan who nodded and followed Eadowen into the living room. They returned with two large cardboard boxes, which they hauled outside.
Starting from the kitchen entrance and working their way down to the front door, Aydan and Taban wrapped the lights through the cedar boughs. Aydan dimmed the tri-crystal chandelier in the entryway so they could better admire their work. The ivory glow of the pearl lights and the firelight from the other room coupled with the sharp scent from the boughs and the crisp winter air gave the usually dark hallway quite a festive ambiance. Aydan donned a long velvet coat of a deep indigo shade. The salt-and-pepper faux fur trimmed hood framed his raven hair while the double breasted lines of brass buttons emphasized his triangular silhouette. He completed his snow-princess-steampunk-vampire-look with silk gloves covered in lace and thigh high boots with matching faux fur trim and pointed brass toes.
Too lazy to go upstairs to get the winter coat he’d left on his bed, Taban grabbed Eadowen’s trench coat from a hanger in the living room. A brisk wind greeted the two young men when they joined Eadowen and Donovan by a pine tree adjacent to the Tolymie’s house. Despite its height being only about two feet taller than Donovan, the pine’s branches spread as wide as trees decades older than it. Ea doesn’t like the idea of cutting down a tree so we have to decorate it out here in the cold. Taban gave Eadowen a bitter look. I suggested a fake tree inside, but no, Ea has to have the living tree. “Why do you burn trees for the bonfire in your living room if you don’t want to cut down one measly tree?”
“We collect tree branches and bark that won’t kill the trees,” Aydan replied. The moonlight shone in his silver-eyeliner as he rolled his eyes at Taban’s question. “If you collect bark from a tree by taking off vertical pieces the tree will be fine, but if you take bark from all around the tree in a ring around the trunk you’ll kill it.”
Shaking his head at the Tolymies, Taban shivered and turned a couple of dials on the side of the house to heat the hot tub next to the house.
Eadowen slipped off his heavy winter coat and cashmere sweater. “My trench coat isn’t going to keep you warm. Taban, put on my sweater underneath the coat,” he commanded.
Taban admired the moon and surrounding constellations as he slipped the paleblue sweater over his head. Stealing Eadowen’s clothes was preferable to wearing his own Taban decided; he got to enjoy Eadowen’s hawthorn-thistle perfume and the benefit of the extra room Eadowen’s broad-shouldered clothing provided.
The sound of Stag’s coupe approached, getting louder as it neared the Tolymie’s driveway then faded away for a few minutes, before returning. The four housemates chuckled when they simultaneously realized Stag had missed the turn to their driveway. Eadowen set index-finger thick candles in silver candleholders, which he passed to Taban. Humming a holiday tune, Taban clipped the candlestick holders to the branches, while Aydan and Donovan hung biodegradable tinsel. Rhythmic metallic clangs resounded through the night as Stag carried his pet carrier into the house.
“Oh, yay!” Aydan’s ears pricked up. “Stag brought his chinchillas.”
Soon, Stag came around the side of the house. Upon seeing the moonlight tree decorating party, he broke into a sprint. Almost mirroring him, Aydan raced toward Stag. They yelled excitedly and clasped hands to jump up and down in a fashion Taban thought was reserved only for girls at bars and preteens.
“My ears,” Taban grumbled as Stag and Aydan rejoined them.
Ignoring his comment, Stag flung his arms around Donovan’s neck to exchange a quick squeeze greeting with his best friend. After giving Eadowen a quick kiss on the cheek, Stag started rummaging through one of the decorating boxes. “May I put the top on the tree?” Stag asked in a sweet Georgia accent. Locating the object he sought, Stag held a hollowed out crystal that Donovan had carved into a unicorn horn to his forehead.
“I don’t know it looks quite prett
y where it is,” Aydan commented motioning for Stag to bend toward him. When Stag obliged, Aydan brushed Stag’s purple bangs into place around the horn. “There we go.” He snapped a picture with his Ogham.
Donovan placed his hands on Stag’s hips, “Ready?” he asked. Stag smiled over his shoulder at Donovan and timed a jump as his friend hoisted him up. After some manipulation of the branches, Stag managed to fit the horn over the top of the pine.
“Show us one of your cheerleading moves,” Taban demanded.
“I’m usually a catcher. I’m not a good flyer,” Stag replied.
“Show Taban and Eadowen that thing you and Donovan figured out,” Aydan suggested.
Still carrying Stag, Donovan backed away from the tree, nodded to Stag, and launched him up in the air. Stag twisted around in midair and landed facing the other direction in Donovan’s arms. Laughing, their audience clapped and resumed decorating.
To distract himself from his frozen fingertips, Taban started quietly singing, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Soon Eadowen recognized the tune and started to sing in his sweet baritone. As he accepted another candle from him, Taban gestured up to help Eadowen adjust himself to the correct pitch. Stag, who had joined Aydan and Donovan on tinsel duty, searched his Ogham to find an instrumental version of the song. Once the melody played, Stag was able to join in at the chorus. Though Stag’s voice could not compare to Taban’s trained and talented vocal cords, he matched Taban’s tenor adequately for the occasion.
“Why didn’t you two join in?” Stag asked.
“I didn’t know the words,” Aydan explained.
“We could project the words on the side of the house,” Stag offered holding up his Ogham.
“Since we’re doing stuff, we could sing something we all know,” Aydan suggested.
“Winter Wonderland?” Donovan suggested.
“Sure,” Aydan agreed.
The quintet sang under the starlit sky. Donovan’s bass blended with Eadowen’s baritone, but the deeper voices sounded a bit off when juxtaposed to the two tenors singing the exact same words. Secretly, Taban was grateful to Aydan who used his counter-tenor to echo the lyrics. Taban wished the others had as much training as he had, so they could create a beautiful masterpiece with their different ranges. I guess that’s not supposed to be the point of singing holiday music together, Taban decided. When they finished caroling, the tree’s branches, so laden with tinsel and candles, drooped painfully. Despite the strained branches, the pine glittered so brightly in the candlelight that it appeared to be moments away from lighting on fire.
“I think we over did it,” Taban remarked.
“Nonsense,” Aydan replied. “Looks great.”
“I think we should take a few candles off, but the tinsel is fabulous,” Stag decided titling his head to look at the tree from another angle.
“Well, enjoy your glitter tree, boys.” Taban sighed and turned in the direction Eadowen had been. “This is the last time we let a cheerleader and a costume-happy magician be in charge of anything sparkly, eh Ea?” Taban glanced around the tree, but Eadowen was nowhere to be found. “Ea?”
“Bringing hot chocolate,” Donovan explained.
“Thanks.” When he spoke Taban saw his own breath more clearly than before. A shiver pricked at his scalp and slithered down his spine. He glanced longingly at the hot tub with seating for eight he’d bought for the Tolymie’s during his first winter in Nova Scotia. The luxurious tub complete with miniature water falls in two corners, steamed only a few meters away under a turret-shaped gazebo Donovan had constructed to protect it from the elements. Aydan, who apparently had the same idea, started to work on the straps to the padded cover. Taban and Stag heaved the top off the cedar finished tub.
“Are you getting in, Donovan?” Stag asked stripping off his coat and long-sleeved shirt.
“Uh …” Donovan inspected the ground. “Getting a swimsuit,” he muttered.
“Suit yourself.” Stag casually slung his pants and underwear over one shoulder the way someone might usually carry a jacket. The bruises he’d received from catching cheerleader’s falls adorned his chest in purple splotches. In anticipation of getting wet, Stag slicked back his hair then programmed his nano hair dye to hold his bangs in place.
Retrieving some hangers he’d stashed in the gazebo roof, Aydan carefully hung his clothes over Stag’s folded ones. The winter weather made Taban reluctant to remove his clothes, but his desire to be engulfed in warm water soon superseded his former misgivings. He wasn’t excited about being nude in front of Stag and Aydan, but he succumbed to the peer pressure and tossed his clothes in a heap next to the Jacuzzi. As he settled in against one of the water falls, he noticed that Aydan used his legs to hide his genitals unlike Stag who made no effort to cover anything. “Hey Aydan, you could totally pull off a The Birth of Venus look if you just used your hair to cover yourself,” Taban jeered.
Moving a handful of his hair in front of his body, Aydan seemed to take the idea quite seriously, but fell short of covering himself by a few centimeters.
“Wow, you guys massacred your body hair. What did it ever do to you?” Taban wondered aloud. “I mean I know I don’t have a lot and I groom it, but you guys … everything is like waxed.”
“I’ve had sequins and glitter in places I didn’t know I had.”
“Ditto for some of my outfits,” Aydan explained. “Not worth getting anything caught.”
“Fair enough.” Combing his wavy hair back with his fingers, Taban leaned back to let the waterfall of warm water flow over his face and shoulders. As he licked salt off his lips, he celebrated his splurge to buy seaweed enzymes and sea salt instead of bromine for sanitation. The scent of the treated water evoked images of tropical oceans in his mind’s eye, though the pine smell convoluted it a little.
Donovan joined them a few moments later carrying a stack of towels for everyone. The water rose noticeably when his large frame displaced it. He’s gotten so big recently, Taban thought as his eyes traced the stretch marks on Donovan’s back. I can’t believe he doesn’t turn seventeen until mid-May.
“Hey Stag, when did you turn eighteen?” Taban asked.
“My birthday was a couple weeks ago.” Cupping his hands Stag scooped up some of the frothing water and let it pour over his dark arms and torso. The foam trickled down his wet body highlighting every muscle on his wiry abdomen.
Donovan had already commandeered the highest seat in the hot tub allowing him the most leg room, but only shallow water to cover his torso. When Stag decided to sit, he had to contort his body because his seat did not accommodate his legs—long even in proportion to his six foot four inch frame.
“Aren’t you and Donovan in the same year?” Taban leaned back into a bubble jet to target a particularly tight knot between his shoulder blades.
“Yeah, I had trouble coming into school mid-year when my dads and I first moved to the United States from Amman.”
“Couldn’t you have done an online thing?” Taban asked.
“I was eleven and wasn’t self-motivated enough … and school is kind of hard for me. I’m not a very fast reader. Math is tough too.”
“You’re just going to major in girls in university aren’t you?” Taban laughed.
“Do you mean gender and sexuality studies, women’s history, or were you insinuating he’ll be having a lot of sex?” Aydan sneered from his end of the Jacuzzi.
“From what I hear Stag needs no formal education in the last of those three categories,” Eadowen cut in as he rolled down the path toward them in his swimsuit. Despite the bumps of the uneven path, he managed not to spill a drop of the hot chocolates sitting on a tray balanced in his lap. He set the hot chocolates afloat in the Jacuzzi on the buoyant tray, then hoisted himself from his wheelchair into the effervescing water.
“Guess cheerleaders like their own kind,” Taban joked expecting Stag to chuckle.
Instead, Stag suddenly averted his eyes as though he found a spot in t
he foam from the jets fascinating. Running his hand through his hair bashfully Stag said in a quiet voice, “Apparently they do.”
“Oh really?” Taban, interested for the first time, half-stepped and half-swam toward Stag who held his right arm with his left hand guarding his chest as he continued to avoid eye contact. Chin submerged in the water, Taban looked up at Stag expectantly, this gesture only made Stag try to make himself even smaller against the side of the hot tub.
“Uh … they just sort of … well, one of the ladies on the team asked me to. Then she told her friends and more people asked me. I like them so I mean I was fine with it, but I didn’t know I would be so …well … you know …”
“Popular,” Taban filled in. “Why are you embarrassed? You’re male-bodied. There aren’t as many double standards around sex that you have to deal with. The only people who would call you a slut are jealous guys. You don’t even want to know how many people I’ve slept with.”
“You’re right I don’t,” Stag said coldly.
“Your face lights up when you look at women and you always look really interested in whatever the person you’re talking to is saying. No wonder they like you.”
“I am interested in what people have to say, but I used to always look away from people I found attractive because I didn’t want them to think I was objectifying them. Eadowen told me differently. Apparently, it’s better to acknowledge that I find her attractive with a smile or a more subtle expression.”
“Since, to you, women are just as much people as men, it’s already obvious you don’t just view them as objects and most people like a compliment—even a silent one,” Eadowen assured Stag.
“I didn’t realize Ea was coaching you.” Taban plunged his fingers into the whip cream on one of the hot chocolates and licked them off thoughtfully.
“Wait. I think I overhead something a few months ago,” Aydan commented. “Did you contact Eadowen when you were in some sort of a crisis recently?”
Seducer Fey Page 28
